I’ve counted eleven thousand, six hundred and fifty two tiny soldiers carved in marble relief on the outer walls that ring the temple, though I’ve only named seventeen of them. Each one has a pointed headpiece, a carved cloth sampot, and at least one weapon. In preparation for the Reason Ritual I must polish them all, Baaun Oupom had said, and I cannot afford to anger him again.

Effie Seiberg is a fantasy and science fiction writer. Her stories can be found in the “Women Destroy Science Fiction!” special edition of Lightspeed Magazine, Galaxy’s Edge, Analog, and Fireside Fiction, amongst others. This is her third appearance in PodCastle.

Effie lives in San Francisco with her dog Yo-yo. She likes to make sculpted cakes and bad puns. You can follow her on twitter at @effies, or read more of her work at effieseiberg.com.

A lot of the setup was so sad it was difficult to keep going, but somehow I could tell Effie had a kick-ass ending waiting for me, and I wasn't disappointed!

One thing I rather liked was that Baaun Vichekh might be kind, but he really wasn't good at logic. He called what Chananthay was telling him "illogical" and it really wasn't--it was just unfamiliar. Logic doesn't work that way.

Zoanon, yeah, the beatings were pretty rough. I'm not sure if I'd write them so harshly if I were to write the story over again. I did want to contrast that even in these wretched circumstances, it's not logic that wins, but love. All Chananthay really wants is a friend. At no point does she even conceive of revenge on the monks... at most, she dreams that they'd listen to her and find her worthwhile.

Chris - yeah, I miiiiight have a beef with folks who call things "logical" that aren't. A lot of religious doctrine is based on faith, and you can't logic faith. You can logic based on an assumption of faith, but it needs to be called out as that, or else your whole epistemological argument falls apart - or at least is missing an asterisk.